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Hi, I'm Rachel! I'm a professional writer and editor based in Brooklyn. The Rewm is where I share my work, my favorite things from around the web, and the things that keep me busy when I'm not at work.

Foodstuffs: June 3 to June 9

June 10, 2013

Last week, Eric and I finally got back into our normal plan-meals-go-to-the-grocery-store-on-Sunday routine. The week after I got home from Michigan was something of a free-for-all. (We were going to the grocery store, like, every other day, and while that sounds all cool and European in theory, it was actually really annoying.)

Breakfasts and lunches were the usual suspects…eggs and bacon and lots of leftovers!

We also had a lot of amazing fruit this week. This past Saturday, we went to the farmers market; I didn’t realize until we got there, but I actually hadn’t been in a while. (First I was traveling, and then we went to Galveston instead of going to the farmers market last Saturday.) We got peaches, blueberries, and blackberries and I was thinking this was the kind of fruit you’d want to have with some good sweet cream. So last night, I used this recipe to make a sweet cream. We had for breakfast this morning and it was so good…and it’s really not a breakfast food at all. It tastes just like melted ice cream and felt quite indulgent for a Monday.

This week we’ve got some good meals lined up and are planning to make our own maraschino cherries; I’ll let you know how that goes next week! How about you? Any good recipes from last week or big plans for this week to share?

save for dinner out tonight, this week is the first week since the wedding where I’ve been able to actually meal plan and I am enjoying it so much. Lots of recipes from veganomicon are on the table (metaphorically speaking), as well as grilling out over the weekend after deep-cleaning the house.

Those recipes sound incredible — I’m going to have to bust a few of them out in the coming weeks. I totally agree about the wonders of fruit, too: our farmer’s market is kind of ridiculous and inaccessible, so I’ve been buying grocery store fruit. Although it’s not as fabulous as the farmer’s market variety, I still get insanely excited each summer when the glut of fruit becomes available.

I made my own noodles this week. I’d always been dissuaded from doing so because I thought it was impossible without lots of special equipment, but I successfully made some really kickass pasta with just three ingredients, my food processor, a rolling pin, and a knife. It was very easy, kind of fun (I like doing repetitive cooking tasks while listening to news podcasts, like PRI’s The World), and so much cheaper than buying pasta. (I feel the same way now about bread, beans, and pizza dough now too.) I suspect I’ll make my own pasta from here on out, unless I need a specific kind that I can’t make. The next big experiment is to see if I can make ravioli, using this pasta recipe and the technique I used to make homemade poptarts.

I also made chicken noodle soup for my fiance because he has a terrible cold. I’m a vegetarian for medical reasons. This means that, a) I have no experience cooking meat, so I ask stupid questions (“this is skinless and boneless, but is there anything else I have to remove before I cook it?”), and b) I can’t taste anything as I go, so I keep having to make him taste it to see if the noodles or cooked or if I need to add salt.

That’s so impressive that you made your own pasta! I also have been loving listening to interesting things while I cook lately…it’s amazing how a good non-fiction audiobook makes chopping a ton of veggies SO much more enjoyable.

It totally isn’t actually impressive at all. You should try it. Two cups of flour (I used semolina because I had it, but the recipe says all-purpose), a half teaspoon of salt, three eggs. Mix it all together, let the dough rest for at least half an hour, divide it into four, roll it thin, cut it into pieces, and boil for about four minutes. It’s actually crazy easy.

Living in Michigan, did you ever get the brand Al Dente Pasta that’s made in Whitmore Lake? They always had parsley pasta, garlic pasta, mushroom pasta, and all that. I am no longer so impressed, nor am I willing to spend that much money on it.

Those greek meatballs sound awesome, putting those on the list for next week. Those berries look delicious! I really need to get to the farmer’s market around here! The mushroom stroganoff we had on Sunday was tasty, perfect for a rainy day.

I love shopping on Sundays for the whole week. Makes everything go smoother/quicker.

I recently got into a discussion on a different blog about how not having a car impacts your ability to do one big grocery shop (I suppose this is the reason it sounds all European). Of course here in Houston, a car is pretty much a way of life, but I dread the idea of ever having to do all my grocery shopping on foot.

We actually live within walking distance of Whole Foods and the grocery store and during our Whole30, there were a lot of days when we’d walk to both stores on Saturday and Sunday to pick up some items for dinner that night. It was both tiring and sort of invigorating (again, probably because it felt kind of European). But doing it all the time when you have to deal with in-climate weather and around your full-time job is a whole other (far less chic) story. That’s how I had to do it when I lived in NYC and…blah. While it was nice to have so many things within walking distance, not having the option to drive was a bummer. I had groceries delivered for a while for that reason!